This is a collection of seven articles originally published in various
Marxist-Leninist periodicals during the critical months of March and April,
1997. Together they give a picture of events about which little is known outside
Albania.

In the first of these articles, 'a comrade in the Communist Party of Albania'
who is not named for obvious reasons, is interviewed by a journalist from La
Nostra Lotta, organ of the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy.

This comrade dates the beginning of the collapse of socialism in Albania from
shortly after the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985. 'Despite some negative phenomena
in 1985' he says 'with the transformation of the Party of Labour of Albania
(PLA) into the Socialist Party, reformism has spread, opening the way for the
"democratic" reaction of Sali Berisha.'

At first there were illusions about the benefits that capitalism would bring,
but after the fraudulent election of Sali Berisha in 1992, people quickly
changed their minds.

During 1996 the social climate became explosive due to the failure of almost
all economic activity, the crisis of education, the failure to pay pensions,
mass unemployment, the lack of goods of prime necessity and the fall in living
standards generally.

Asked what he considered to be the role of the Socialist Party of Albania in
1997, he said: 'This Party is linked with big European capital and has good
relations with US imperialism.

'It also has unofficial relations with the party of Berisha who, these days,
is using Serbian mercenaries and is engaged with counter-revolution.' Berisha's
party was, of course, the so-called 'Democratic Party.'

The years from 1991 to 1997 in Albania were years of destruction in the name
of the fight against communism. They are described in some detail in an article,
by another member of the Communist Party of Albania, which was published in the
13 March, 1997 issue of Roter Morgen, journal of the Communist Party of
Germany.

This member said that one of the theses of the Democratic Party was that
everything that had been built up during the years of socialism was worthless
and had to be destroyed so that work could begin again from 'zero point.' Or, as
formulated by the economist, Gramoz Pashko, a leading member of the Democratic
Party: 'We are destroying communism in Albania down to the roots.'

In pursuit of this thesis, factories, social and cultural organisations,
stock- breeding complexes and warehouses, even hospitals were closed down or
destroyed. Vineyards and plantations of tropical fruits were burned and
telephone networks in the villages, as well as irrigation plants, were put out
of action.

Graves of the heroes and heroines of the national liberation movement were
desecrated. 'We are fighting against communism so that the European and American
world will like us and help us,' trumpeted the Berisha clique.

More than 600,000 young Albanians fled the country to seek work in Italy and
Greece or anywhere else that seemed to offer an opportunity for survival. But
many stayed and fought back in desperation.

The popular anger surfaced on the 26th May, 1996, during the rigged
elections, when the headquarters of the Democratic Party, as well as police
stations and the buildings of other state organisations were burnt to the
ground. These actions were accompanied by hunger strikes of students in the
universities of Vlora and Gjirokaster in the south, where working people raided
depots and armed themselves.

In Saranda and in Shenkoll the prisons were opened and political prisoners
released.

President Berisha replied by declaring a state of emergency and placed the
whole country under the control of the army, the police and the secret service
(SHIK). But he did not get the guns back.

In an interview with Ubaldo Buttafava, secretary of the Central Committee of
the Organisation for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy, on the 22
March, 1997, presumably for the La Nostra Lotta, it was pointed out
that the bourgeois press in the US 'says that there is anarchy in Albania, and
that the rebellion was due to the pyramid money schemes.'

But what are the real facts? In the opinion of Buttafava, 'The popular
rebellion in Albania is the product of an economic, social and political crisis
which has matured over the past year.

'It is the result, in the first place, of the reformism of Ramiz Alia and
Fatos Nano inaugurated in 1991 at the 10th Congress of the PLA with the
expulsion from the Party of officers faithful to Enver Hoxha and the defence of
socialism; and in the second place of the 'Democratic' politics of Sali Berisha
who has demonstrated a neo-colonial policy subservient to the US and to Italy.
The popular rebellion in its internal force has diverse politics, among them
those of the new Communist Party of Albania.'

In reply to a further question it was stated: 'The Socialist Party is a
typical social-democratic party which openly supports capitalism, bourgeois
democracy, integration into Europe and NATO. It is the true obstacle to
revolution and the principal counter-revolutionary force; but in these days it
is being unmasked in the eyes of the masses.

Meanwhile, according to an article appearing in the Turkish publication, Emek,
on the 1 April, 1997: 'within the Rebellion Committee in Vlora the
influence of the people and that of the Communist Party of Albania is very
great. In meetings that take place twice daily, thousand of people discuss
further ways of proceeding.' On one thing they appear to be adamant: 'We will
not lay down our weapons.'

Another decision taken by the Rebellion Committee in Vlora was not to march
on Tirana. 'Berisha and the foreign powers.. are trying to provoke a war between
the south and the north....' it decided. 'Such a march would reinforce this
attempt of Berisha and the imperialist countries.' In Vlora, control remained
firmly in the hands of the Rebellion Committee. There was neither chaos nor
looting nor arbitrary shooting.

Similar Rebellion Committees were set up all over the south of Albania,
chosen directly at public meetings by the people who reserved the right to
recall any elected member who did not fulfil his or her obligations.

In an interview in the same edition of Emek, a member of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Albania complained that even the history of
Albania was being manipulated by the new rulers; for example: 'The resistance of
the Albanian people against fascism in 1944 was declared to have been a civil
war in which allegedly much blood was spilled between brothers.' The anniversary
of the liberation of Albania from the Nazis on the 29 November 1944, as a result
of a struggle which had cost the lives of 28,000 partisan men and women, was no
longer allowed to be commemorated.

In the final article in this compilation, published in Roter Morgen on
the 10 April 1997, there was a grave warning that following detailed discussions
between the Albanian Prime Minister Fino and his Italian colleagues, plans for
military intervention by the imperialists had reached an advanced stage.

It was known that Italy had agreed to provide 2,500 troops, France 1,000,
Greece 700, Turkey 500, Spain 500 and Rumania 400. Ostensibly this was to
provide humanitarian aid.

The Communist Party of Albania responded with an appeal headed, 'Hands off
Albania,' which was immediately signed by the Communist Party of Denmark (M-L),
the Federation of Democratic Workers' Associations of Turkey, the Communist
Workers' Party of France, the Communist Party of Germany and the Revolutionary
Organisation of Norway.

In a foreword to the booklet under review, dated the 20 April 1997, it was
announced: 'Foreign troops have landed in Albania in response to the United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1101 under Chapter VII of the United Nations
Charter upon the request of the besieged President Sali Berisha: it has been
supported by NATO and the European Union. The Italian armed forces have provided
the bulk of the soldiers of this military adventure.

'This is no coincidence as Italian capital covets Albanian copper and oil.
Just 58 years ago, under Mussolini, Italian troops landed on Albanian shores and
occupied the country.'

Subsequent events have been sparsely reported in the capitalist press. We
know, for instance, that despite a political coup that at first seemed
successful, Berisha lost the election that followed and that the pathetic
attempt to restore the Albanian monarchy did not survive a referendum held at
the same time as the election.

Fatos Nano, replacing Sali Berisha as President, has, according to an article
in the New Worker on the 4 July, 1997, 'reassured the European Union
that he will continue to support the market economy and the restoration of
capitalism in Albania.'

But as the New Worker added: 'The Albanian Communist Party which led
the revolt, remains loyal to Albania's revolutionary' traditions.'

Or, as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Albania is
quoted in this booklet as having said when the struggle was at its height: 'This
uprising will bring our people numerous experiences and self-assurance.

'A people that lived for decades under socialism and places great importance
on independence will not put up with everything.'